Unicorn's Blood
by Silver Quill2
Summary: Rated R for later chapters. Snape comes up against things from his past that he don't think he can handle and with Voldemort on the rise, it's just doubly complicated. During Harry's fifth year. Not really a S/HG thing, but Hermione plays a major part
1. The Visitor

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own HP in any way shape or form. But if I did...things would go way differently than JK. First off it would be called Severus Snape and in it he would be my personal slave...::cough::...Anywayz...  
  
  
~_~  
  
  
Silver: Sevvie, get me a drink.  
  
Snape: Go to Hell.  
  
Silver: See? The thanks I get for making you my personal slave! Do you ever once thank me? You should be grateful you don't have to be around snot nosed kids anymore.  
  
Snape: ::mumblepsychopathmumble::  
  
Silver: What was that?  
  
~_~  
  
  
Summary: Harry, Ron, and Hermione visit Hagrid's on the first week of their fifth year and come across a startling suprise.  
  
  
  
  
Unicorn's Blood  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter I- The Visitor  
  
  
  
Harry, Ron, and Hermione traveled down their usual path to Hagrid's at a leisurely pace. They were into their first week of their fifth year, and it seemed to go by slowly. It was like that every year. Harry didn't mind actually; neither did Ron or Hermione, except for Potion's class with the Slytherins and Snape, who had already taken away a few points form Gryffindor because Harry misread the lables on a couple of the ingredients used in the potion. It was no problem, with all of the Quidditch matces they were going to win, they'd have no problem winning the house cup from the Slimy Slytherins.  
  
  
They reached Hagrid's door and Ron stepped ahead of them to knock. He made three sharp knocks to make sure Hagrid heard. After a few seconds, he answered the door.  
  
  
A snigger was heard in Ron's direction. He was unable to hold it in, unlike Hermione and Harry. They bit their lips to keep from making any noise.  
  
  
Hagrid was clad in a huge, pink, frilly apron, holding a spatula; which if you didn't know the man, you would swear he was totally out of character.  
  
  
"Hiya Harry. Hermione. Ron. Come in." He pulled the door wide enough for them to enter.  
  
  
They took seats in the one room place. Harry saw Ron look at his feet barely hanging off of the front. Ron shook his head, grinning at the fact that he would never grow into the chair. None of them would ever be able to touch ground.  
  
  
All was peaceful for about half an hour. They chatted about nothing in particular while Hagrid cooked. First about Quidditch, then the weather, how their summers went, all up to potions. That's when Hermione and Ron began their argument. Hermione referred it as a 'disagreeable conversation' when Harry asked, but he knew better. Besides, it basically meant the same thing. The topic was the difference between the effects of Ouied Poison and Moonseed poison.   
  
  
Hagrid and Harry exchanged confused looks every so often, but said nothing to break the squabbling up. It was amusing to watch Ron try to prove his point to Hermione, who knew she was right about the certain subject. Ron liked to start arguments with her, Harry thought, because he fancied her.  
  
  
His thoughts as well as their dispute was interupted by scratches on the outside of the rough wooden door. Without disturbing Hagrid, Harry hopped down off of the large seat and headed for the door.  
  
  
Ron and Hermione stared intently after him, curious as to know what it was making the noise.  
  
  
"It could be Crookshanks." Hermione whispered to Ron, not taking her eyes off of the door.  
  
  
"Why are you whispering? Besides," Ron confessed before he realized it, "I locked Crookshanks up in my closet."  
  
  
"You what?!" Hermione shouted hysterically, starting to get up to save her dear cat. Ron held his hand out for her to say put. She slumped back down in her chair, furious with Ron for his actions.  
  
  
The clawing noise seemed to be getting more frantic by the second passing. The room was silent, except for the clinging of a metal spatula against a frying pan and the creaking of floorboards beneath Harry's feet every step towards the door.  
  
  
Harry Twisted the brass knob on the door slightly and slowly opened the door. Expecting it to be a four legged animal of some sort, he was shocked when it was a unconcious woman who fell against him. He tried to support her weight and drag her out of the doorway, but he dropped her on the hard floor when he saw that she was naked and bloody. He hadn't meant to, it was just his reaction to her nakedness. And the blood was weird. There was no other way to describe it. The iron scent clung to his nostril and he felt like gagging. It thick metallic red liquid was smeared all about his robes and arms. A streak of it was just below his mouth.  
  
  
She fell onto the dirty wooden floor with a sickening thump, her limbs sprawled unusually about her, left foot twisted beyond recognition. It didn't even look like a foot anymore. It was gnarled and bloody with the bone that joined with the ankle protruding out on the side.  
  
  
Harry fell to the floor shoulder shaking violently as he vomited. When he looked back up Ron and Hermione were beside him. Ron was looking after him as Hermione studied the woman in the puddle of blood on the floor. Under all the tangled sticky mass of what looked like silvery white hair, escaped a ragged moan.  
  
  
Ron helped Harry up, looking like he was going to retch as well. His freckles were vivid against his ashen face. "What do we do, Harry!?"  
  
  
"Calm down, Ron." Hermione said, quite shaken herself. "She's still alive."  
  
  
"YEAH, BUT FOR HOW LONG?! AND WHY ARE YOU SO CALM?!? HAVE YOU SEEN THINGS LIKE THIS BEFORE?!!" Ron was going into hysterics. His hands were shaking and he was pacing a hole into the floor.  
  
  
Hermione waited for him to look at her then spoke. "Someone has to stay calm Ron. It won't do any good to go psychopathic." She went over to the boy and held him by the shoulders. Ron sagged against her.  
  
  
Hagrid, who hadn't noticed all of the commotion, thought Hermione and Ron was still arguing. "Okay now, it's getting a bit loud."  
  
  
Ron jerked away from Hermione and turned to the half-giant with a sudden burst of rage and panic. "Incase you HAVEN'T noticed...THERE'S A DYING WOMAN ON YOUR FLOOR!!! IS THAT A CAUSE OF CONCERN, OR DOES THIS SORT OF THING HAPPEN EVERYDAY?!!!"  
  
  
"What?" He spun around quickly scanning around the room. Once he saw the mess on the floor, he let out a gasp. "Merlin's Bones!" The rosy complexion on his face drained almost instantaneously. He rushed over to the body. "What happened?!"  
  
  
Harry hadn't spoke for a bit, and he was surprised when he found himself answering. "I heard a scratching noise so I opened the door. She fell on me." Hagrid seemed to glance over him briefly before he focused his attention on the heap on the floor.   
  
  
Hagrid grimaced while taking mental notes to see if she should be moved or not. Broken bones? Only that one, and it looked horrible. Cuts? By Merlin, there was too many cuts to count. Slashes were like tiger stripes down her sides. He pushed her hair out of her face and gasped as he recognized her.  
  
  
Her eyes slowly formed into tiny slits. "R-rubeus?" was all she could get out before falling back into a state of unconciousness.  
  
  
"We have to go to Poppy at once!" Hagrid instructed, picking up the woman and running out of the room. Ron and Hermione followed after him, falling behind because of their size.  
  
  
Harry vomited once more, feeling weak as his soulders sagged heavily. Smoke began to fill up the room like a black fog and he slowly got up, wiping his mouth, and headed for the stove. Turning the knob to cut off the fire, he took the frying pan off of the stove and went after them at a quick run.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
  
A/N: This is my first attempt at a fanfic, well, not really. I have done a NUMBER of fanfics, but none of them or finished or posted so...yeah anyways. I won't put up another chapter until I have at least five reviews just to make sure people actually like my writing. Review please!! Thanx. I am eternally and internally grateful!!!  
  
Love- Silver Quill 


	2. Ring of Haunted Memories

Sorry for copying the other chapter, I'm new at this so...I'm a little confused on how to get chapters up.   
  
  
Summary: The mysterious woman is brought to the hospital wing just as Snape was exiting. He finds something that brings up the memories he'd like to forget.  
  
~*~  
  
Silver: I have been making progress with Sevvie, but he still needs coaxing...::uncoils whip::  
  
Snape: ...What is that for?  
  
Silver: Oh, nothing. ::smiles innocently::  
  
Snape: .......::makes a run fot it::  
  
Silver: You can't run forever Severus!! ::chases after him::  
  
~*~  
  
  
  
Unicorn's Blood  
  
Chapter II-- Ring of Haunted Memories  
  
  
  
  
"Pomfrey, I assure you, I am quite alright." Severus Snape growled yet again for the third time. The nurse just wouldn't listen to him.  
  
"Severus, that's a nasty looking burn on the back of your hand. It needs taken care of. What if you were to wake up tomorrow and you had sprouted something out from it?" She grabbed his wrist and pulled out her wand with the other hand.  
  
He tried to protest by jerking his hand away, but she held it firmly. At this, he glared at her with full force. She glared right back at him until Snape sighed heavily, looking away from her. She could always out-glare him. Even when he was little, although she wasn't as frightening as she was then.   
  
Snape looked at the burn on his hand again before Pomfrey waved her wand to heal it. How stupid of him to get it really. It was that blasted vampire dust that did this. He knew he had added too much of it into the cauldron when it began to produce this putrid green smoke as the liquid converted from a cool blue to a firey yellow. The only thing he could do before it exploded was shield himself with his robes. Unfortunately, he missed a spot as the stuff splashed onto his clothes and the bare skin of his hand. It didn't hurt as much now, but it did look alot worse; the wounded area was black around the edges and in the middle was a very dark pink, almost red.  
  
Even after Pomfrey healed it, he was still staring at it as if it weren't even gone. It was covered up, never to be seen again and yet, he still knew it was there. Like somethings he couldn't forget.  
  
"I wonder..." She said, stuffing her wand somwhere within her robes. "What on earth you were doing to cause such a careless mistake such as that." It was said more like a statement than a question, but it was prying none the less.  
  
"I agree it was careless, but it wasn't my fault," he snapped defensively, getting up from the chair. "That blasted language is too hard to decipher. Just when you think you got it figured out, you realize it has more depth to cracking it."  
  
"Oh, you're talking about that language...Defothe, I believe." She was now over by one of many shelves of medicine in the back, unseen. Only her voice you could hear echoing softly from the walls. "Artemis knew it." She commented nonchalantly, while straightening things on the shelves from what he heard. Things went uncomfortably silent after words.   
  
Snape began to briskly head towards the door, ignoring Pomfrey's attempt at an apology. He had almost forgot about Artemis, until now. It was as fresh in his mind as that burn was. The nurse wasn't totally to blame. When he found the potion book under the floorboards in the restricted area of the library, his brain worked over time with memories of his school days.  
  
Dumbledore was glad when he found the book. Snape didn't know why. No one could interpret its words. The only two people he knew of were dead. Well, he was sure the other person was dead. No one could survive that long in the Forbidden forest.  
  
Bidding Pomfrey a forced departure, he slipped out through the door and into the hall all the while thinking of the potion. It was terribly important to figure it out, because that potion, when brewed right, could make anything immortal, mortal. And with Voldemort rising steadily, they needed it done as soon as possible.  
  
To think that the Headmaster left him in charge of making it seemed painfully funny. Yes, he was a potions teacher, capable of creating any potion, but he sucked at translating. Blast it, he wasn't even good at transfiguration!   
  
He laughed sardonically, inspecting his robes. They were singed and covered in ash. A rancid odor clung to it as well, making him choke. A bath was definately in order as soon as he got to his room. After that he'd have to pour over that book for hours, hoping to get the words right. He was told to try not and blow the school up and he wouldn't. But part of it was going to get blown up before everything was over with.  
  
The halls started to slightly tremor, dust and dirt pattered around his feet. Pictures began to vibrate against the enormous walls.  
  
"Is this an earthquake?" A lank man in one of the frames, clad in royal blue robes, said anxiously for an answer.  
  
"It appears to be so? What do we do in these instances?" A high pitched voice from another portrait asked.  
  
"Well, what you do is-" A long wavy red head began, but was cut short.   
  
"We're gonna DIE!!!" Another witch screamed hysterically, running into the picture with the wizard in blue. She clung to him tightly. "I WISH MY MUM WAS HERE!!!" The wizard held on to her, trying to calm her down, but he looked a little scared himself.  
  
It was no earthquake. It was Hagrid, running down the hall, trying to reach the hospital wing. He didn't think she would make it. Blood was every where. Spots and puddles here and there, making a path from Hagrid's house to where he was now. At Pomfrey's door. Just looking at the gashes made him sick, the foot was really bad too.   
  
Upon reaching the door, he found Snape frozen by the door, disheveled and confused. There were smudges of gray ash about his face, his clothes torn with burn holes all over them. If the professor didn't move he was going to get hit. There was no way he was going to miss him.  
  
He sure enough hit him as he made it to the door, sending the professor crashing to the floor. Not checking to see if he was okay, he threw open the door and rushed in.  
  
  
Snape got up, making an attempt to brush off his clothes. That proved pointless, the smell on them came up strong as ever, almost sufficatingly so and he was forced to pinch his nose shut. When that was done, something weird was on his nose. Like a metal smell of some sort. And sticky.   
  
He brought his hands infront of his face, palms upward, fingers spread apart. Odd colored blood coated them lightly, some spots, starting to dry. He quickly wiped it onto his robes, not caring if it got any dirtier. The clothes were of no more use to him.  
  
Something caught his eye, Further inspection, confirmed it to be a ring of some sort in a small puddle of blood. He picked it up and cleaned it with a corner of his robe, then got the blood off of his fingers.  
  
The ring was black and pretty small for an adult ring. It would be slightly too big for a child to fit. It was a beautiful ring made possibly of some type of rock. Obsidian first popped into his head; he wanted to dismiss it, because that would mean...  
  
...he felt his heart drop to the bottom of his chest, like when you find out one of your best friends die. His dark eyes went wide once he recognized the object. He bought this ring, putt the unbreakable spell on it, engraved an endearing note on the inside, and gave it to a girl with the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. Yellow like the sun and hair like a moon-less night. The ring wasn't anything special, but it held value. And it took alot of hard work to get it.   
  
Sixteen years ago he had tossed the ring in the forest, thinking his past would go with it. The memories were fresh as ever now that he thought about it. His heart, figuratively speaking, went with the ring. Now it was back. How was it back?  
  
He put the pieces together. The ring was here; Hagrid was carrying someone. Not much to go by, but enough. He thought a bit. A minute later it was like a light went off in his head.   
  
"She's back." He thought aloud, pocketing the ring. Unsure emotion caused his chest to constrict. It was if anger and happiness were dueling for the claim over his heart.   
  
Not deciding which was going to win at this point, he turned on his heel, walking quickly to his class room to tidy up a bit. Then, if today's stress hadn't taken it's toll already, he would tidy up himself and go to bed. The thought seemed to beckon his each passing second.  
  
He really wanted to just leave the classroom like it was presently, but he had to teach tomorrow. And Dumbledore wouldn't be too happy if something happend to them. With a few spells, it could be done in under fifteen minutes. The thought of sleep only a few minutes away, he quickly set off down the hall to his class room.  
  
  
~*~  
  
  
"Do ya...think she'll make it?" Hagrid gulped.  
  
Poppy Pomfrey glanced up from her work to Hagrid's tear stained face. By the way he came in earlier, she thought someone was dying. Come to find out, someone was at that point, having shed so much blood. "Well, I've cleaned the wounds and healed them. The bleeding has stopped there, but" She guestered towards the gnarled foot. "that is a little more difficult. It will take a series of healings to get that straight. And still after that, it will be hard to walk on for a while." Pomfrey directed a finger to the liquid splattered all over the floor. "What an odd color, don't you say?"  
  
Hagrid furrowed his brows deep coaxing out a correct response. "It seems like unicorn blood...and human blood." He thought harder. "I remember reading somewhere that people who stay animagi for a long time start to turn like it. Artemis was a unicorn animagus and if she was like that for a long time."  
  
"Yes..." she said distractedly. "That would explain it." The leg began to bleed again, this time not as much since being cleaned. They both set there eyes upon it. "You might want to leave." She was pale.  
  
He nodded. "Yeh, maybe I should." He started for the door. "I'll see yeh around." And he was gone.  
  
Pomfrey advanced toward the foot, cringing at the task ahead. She hated cracking bones. There was just something sickening about it. Pain, unlike anything would grip the woman when she was awake and for several days to come. It would be hell. Thank goodness she wasn't in her shoes. And she began her task.  
  
That night, ear piercing screams would fill the ears of every person at Hogwarts, keeping them awake. Tortured screams of the now conscious woman on the bed.  
  
  
  
~*~  
  
  
Severus stared at the ceiling above his bed. He thought he was tired earlier, but that awful noise was keeping him awake. Finally using a silencing spell, he could be free to sleep. But he still couldn't. Yawning and rubbing his eyes, he attempted to keep the searing pain of a forming head ache at bay.  
  
The ring had caught his attention again for the billionth time that night, glowing faintly silver in the moon streaked room. He gazed at it, vexed at how a ring, a plain little black ring could keep him up, when all he wanted to do was sleep and forget about it. It was going to haunt him for the rest of his life.  
  
He sighed bitterly, then flipped over, back facing toward the ring. Now that it wasn't distracting him, maybe he could conjure up a solution to his predicament.  
  
Ah, his wand. Of course. He recalled the spell partly in his insomniac state.  
  
He reached for his wand between his silk sheet covered mattress and pillow and curled his fingers around the wooden stick, pulling it out. It was then brought to his forehead as he whispered a spell, casting him instantly into a calm, relaxing sleep. His wand rolled out of his hand, coming to a rest a little ways away from him. The ring was forgotten, for now.  
  
~*~  
  
Thanks for the reviews people! It wasn't as much as I expected, but hey! I don't care. I'm just happy some people are reading it!! If you do read it, please review!! Thank you!  
  
Love- Silver Quill 


End file.
